I deal with Asus on a daily basis, Gygabite and MSI...I can't actually say my personal feelings about these dealings because I know the reps I deal with are actually members, here but, let's just say I'm less than satisfied.

Calling EVGA is actually a highlight of my day, I speak with people that KNOW what they're talking about. Their RMA program is beyond reproach and in general, they're service is very pleasant.

If you pay a bit of an exaggerated price for a lifetime warranty and "amazing" customer service, I personally think it's worth it...I'm sure the entire EVGA community would agree with me.

If you don't feel that way, that's your business.

If we're going to make comparisons, however; I do ask that we actually compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges.

That may be true for residents of North America but outside of North America (certainly in Australia anyway) EVGA warranty sucks compared to brands like ASUS.

The reason I say that is because I have dealt with both ASUS and EVGA for RMA's and the ASUS process was twice as fast as the EVGA RMA. Also AFAIK EVGA only offers a 3-year warranty in Australia (could be wrong on this), not to mention that 3 years is more than long enough with the way hardware progresses anyway.

In 3 years time a GTX580 will be obsolete to say the least. So a lifetime warranty really is a waste when you can get a 3 year warranty from another brand and save $40-$50 in the process. The quality of the cards (unless they are non-reference) is exactly the same. All you do when you buy EVGA is pay for an unneccesairy warranty (lifetime) and for the sticker on the card/box. They are exactly the same as an ASUS, GB, MSI, Palit, Gainward etc. under the hood, yet they cost more because of the EVGA name and a warranty that really is useless in most scenarios.

It just makes economic sense to choose the cheaper brands.

Again, this is all my opinion. But I just can't justify paying more for EVGA and I certainly won't buy another EVGA product unless they are the same price as the competition

That may be true for residents of North America but outside of North America (certainly in Australia anyway) EVGA warranty sucks compared to brands like ASUS.

The reason I say that is because I have dealt with both ASUS and EVGA for RMA's and the ASUS process was twice as fast as the EVGA RMA. Also AFAIK EVGA only offers a 3-year warranty in Australia (could be wrong on this), not to mention that 3 years is more than long enough with the way hardware progresses anyway.

In 3 years time a GTX580 will be obsolete to say the least. So a lifetime warranty really is a waste when you can get a 3 year warranty from another brand and save $40-$50 in the process. The quality of the cards (unless they are non-reference) is exactly the same. All you do when you buy EVGA is pay for an unneccesairy warranty (lifetime) and for the sticker on the card/box. They are exactly the same as an ASUS, GB, MSI, Palit, Gainward etc. under the hood, yet they cost more because of the EVGA name and a warranty that really is useless in most scenarios.

It just makes economic sense to choose the cheaper brands.

Again, this is all my opinion. But I just can't justify paying more for EVGA and I certainly won't buy another EVGA product unless they are the same price as the competition

Yeah sometimes people forget there's people outside of the US.
Both ASUS and MSI have warranties tied to the serial number so you can resell them and the warranty transfers to the new owner unlike EVGA.Edited by PoopaScoopa - 5/11/11 at 5:46am

That's because both of us are referring to the original gtx 580 HC2 FTW with 1.5gb VRAM that came out very shortly after reference gtx 580s. I was saying that if EVGA had released the original HC2 FTW with 3gb of VRAM a better vrms, and maybe a higher OC, I am sure people would have coughed up an extra $200-300 for that. But as it stands, they just put a waterblock on a reference card, OCd it to 850mhz (guaranteed on water anway) and sold it as FTW.

This card already far too late to the game. Much better to buy something temporary until the new cards come out.

When I talked about binning I was talking about whether the GPU could perform reliably at higher clocks than others, not necessarily last longer. But apparently they even clocked this card down to reference values, instead of the 850Mhz from some of the air cooled models they have. Supposedly a water-cooled card could handle the heat better than stock settings, no ? Kind of a weird way to market a $700+ card.

A higher binned chip that is stable at a higher OC will be more reliable at stock clocks. And the card is at the stock clocks for a 580. Itâ€™s not overclocked like the other HC2 because itâ€™s not labeled as FTW.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tpi2007

As to MSI's Military Class Components, I can't speak much for them, since I never had one, but from what I've read around there, you might be exaggerating a little bit. They have some problems with AMD motherboards with 4+1 VRM designs (especially when overclocking), but their Intel boards and especially their GPU's seem to be ok. Twin Frozr cards seem to be very popular nowadays too.

It really came down to the poor quality of the chokes used with the low number of phases. The Biostar 890FXE had a 4+2 phase design which used higher quality chokes and MOSFETs making it an excellent OCer.

I've heard the same problem happening on some Intel boards. They most likely have a different division of engineers handling graphic cards.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tpi2007

Secondly, the failure rate of the chip itself is way less than the components on the card. VRM's, capacitors, chokes, all are a lot more vulnerable. And that's why it matters to also have good quality components.

I was kind of speaking for components in general using the chip as an example. I would expect GPUs being a higher cost item to have a lower failure rate by default.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tpi2007

I bought a GTX480 for a great price a few weeks ago. It's a Gigabyte reference model. It does not have the Ultra Durable moniker. Sure, the capacitors are all solid state and it has a very dependable 6+1 VRM design, but that is what the reference model calls for. But when you look at the chokes, they are not ferrite core chokes. No, they are exposed coils. Fortunately my card doesn't whine at all. But I've heard people complaining of reference cards whining. The last one was an EVGA GTX570 from a member here at OCN. Guess where the whine is coming from ? It may not affect the working of the card, but it's annoying. Providing quality components not only makes the card more reliable, but also gives you more quality time while playing. Bear in mind I'm not complaining of the card I bought; I knew what I was buying, and it was for a great price. But that is the point. If someone comes here and argues that "maybe" EVGA is using better components than the reference ones, I'm sorry, but that is not very reassuring.

The chokes whining is not inherent of a failure. It just means it's not properly insulated. With any manufacturing process you are going to get variation and sometimes that results in failure. You would have to pull up the failure rate statistics from each manufacturer to really tell what cards use the best components.

Whether EVGA "maybe" using higher quality components in their high end cards is just that, a "maybe." I was merely stating that you shouldn't make a final call on something you can only confirm through an assumption.

Quote:

Originally Posted by tpi2007

Frankly, I think you are missing the point. Reference designs are supposed to be cost-effective. They are not supposed to be top notch. They are made with x% of failure rate in mind, and with a given x% of overclock margin, but nothing spectacular.

If you want better, you will have to give the card better components. Does GTX570 and GTX590 + reference design VRM's ring a bell ?

Wow, thanks for mocking me. I had no point, that was an opinion as well as yours it seems.

I just kind of find it redundant to have a company tell me they are doing what I expect them to do which is use high quality components. And the labels/stickers they slap on their box to reassure me is kind of corny IMO. The use of high quality components is nice but if I was looking for a card that can really OC I would get one that is designed from the ground up to do so like the MSI Lightning cards. Knowing a card was designed with a better VRM is worth more to me than knowing the quality of the components.

I never really seen EVGA ever advertise that their cards are OC monsters or designed for OCers. Most of their marketing is towards gamers and how slick their designs are. I also find the â€œFTWâ€ and other gamer type labels pretty corny as well. I donâ€™t see why they have to use the same advertising methods as other manufacturers to really gain their trust. Theyâ€™re likely using their brand name to do that. Then again, this my opinion and you have your own.

You already posted about this but the 570 and 590 has more to do with the design by Nvidia over the quality of components used by the manufacturers. To make up for the poor OCs would mean a redesign in the VRM.

Anyway. The cards looks neat but overpriced which make you leave the card in the store. With 110$ or less you can buy a EK wb and have fun, in my case this is what i did and even bougth the circuit back plate